


in tarnish and cloud

by TheBigCat



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast), The Adventure Zone: Dust
Genre: Augustus Is A Jerk, Character Study, Death, Gen, Scene Rewrite, TAZ: Dust, kind of??
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-14
Updated: 2018-03-14
Packaged: 2019-03-31 07:34:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13970316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheBigCat/pseuds/TheBigCat
Summary: Gandy Dancer is utterly fucking terrified of death.





	in tarnish and cloud

**Author's Note:**

> i... dunno man. i know it's not very long and i wanted to do an actual scene with augustus pulling gandy out of the Vampire Feeding Gone Wrong like he promised, but my hellbrain wouldn't let me get that far. maybe later. (probably not) if somebody actually writes that you will instantly have my allegiance and i will die for you in mortal combat and maybe even draw fanart, god willing. i love you all good night

Augustus Parsons is… not a good man. He isn't a particularly nice one either, truth be told. He has done some morally questionable things in his life and death, some sort-of-definitely ethically wrong things, and that's not to mention the flat-out nasty, would-probably-make-a-nun-faint type things that he's also definitely committed.

But he doesn't talk about that much, at all. Not recently, anyway.

Mostly he's been committed to ghosting (heh) the streets of Dry River, annoying citizens in the most petty yet utterly dignified ghostly ways possible, and occasionally helping out where it might benefit him. He hasn't seen his daughter since he died. Maybe that's a good thing.

The partnership with Errol and Gandy is… new. And not entirely unwelcome. It's a change in pace. He probably wouldn't even give this new job a second thought - just another blip in the eternity that is ghosthood - if it weren't for Gandy.

There's something about Gandy, tiny Gandy Dancer, that gives him pause. She definitely doesn't remind him of his daughter. That's not it, not at all. She's bright and full of spark and energy, and her eyes gleam with mischief when he helps her cheat at poker, although he gets the impression that she probably didn't even need his help. She's capable, confident, and knows what she's doing. And she smiles at him like she doesn't know what he's done.

And honestly? She probably doesn't.

He sometimes wonders if that's really a good thing.

* * *

 

Even after cracking some probably utterly tasteless jokes at her (he honestly can't tell if they're cruel and he can't bring himself to care, not really, not anymore), he sees the terror on her face and hears the nervous laughter closely masking hysteria. There's a twitch in her hands and a tremble in her legs that he saw from her once before, back at the church while facing down Michael. She hasn't said it outright to anybody in the group yet - they don't know each other well enough for that, not really - but he can _tell._

Gandy Dancer is utterly fucking terrified of death.

 _Oh, suck it up, why don't you,_ he wants to say to her, _been there, done that, won the commemorative mug with the kitschy slogan._ Death isn't _that_ bad, not once you've passed through the border dividing the living and the not-so-alive. Sure, there's the occasional stabbing phantom ( _ha_ ) pain, and the knowledge that you're only a shadow of whom you once were - but on the plus side, you can float through walls and move around invisibly and wreak havoc on all those that wronged you in your living days. Not to mention the multitude of absolutely fucking _excellent_ jokes and puns now available at your disposal.

He could recount this entire spiel to Gandy right here and now, but she's already exchanging some stiff words with what's-her-name, Isabella, who appears to be trying to convince Gandy that she won't die in the process of this… vampire bite thing.

Which, okay, the guy in the _cage_ hasn't died yet over the course of two years - it is a fair point - but Augustus knows exactly how nasty some vampires can get when faced with fresh blood, and letting even your closest vampire friend close to your neck is really quite a terrible idea.

Augustus considers speaking up with an idea - an almost _kind_ idea- that's just occurred to him. It takes him a few seconds to get past the blocker in his mind that prevents him from doing anything nicer than 'mildly vindictive towards anybody in the vicinity'.

Gandy cracks a weak joke, something about potato chips and blood, and honestly? Augustus nearly smiles at that. The girl's got an excellent sense of humour, and that's as good a reason as any to be on her side. At this moment, at least.

"I will make you this promise, Gandy," he says, and drifts over so he's in her full line of sight, obstructing her vision of the vampire in the room. "If it seems like our _host_ ," a non-existent breath, a narrowing of the eyes in the direction of Isabella, "is becoming a bit overzealous with her consumption, I will manifest and I will sort things out."

Gandy sucks in a deep breath of air and lets it out slowly, the traces of humour falling off her face - replaced by something that might well be hope. "You - swear on your soul?"

This is the first promise Augustus Parsons has made since his death. He's not good at promises - has never _wanted_ to be. The last promise he made, he broke within hours - he had sworn to be there for his daughter's tenth birthday, a small affair held in the drawing room of their mansion. He had genuinely intended to keep the date, and might have even considered it to be the beginning of him making amends.

He hadn't made it home that evening, for reasons utterly beyond his control. A broken promise, however, is still a broken promise.

"What little of it I have left," he says solemnly, and it's sealed just like that.

This is a promise that he does not intend to break.

She looks at him for a while, and her head jerks downwards in the tiniest of nods.

"All right," she says, and it's unclear if this is directed at him, Isabella, or maybe just to herself. She turns to face Isabella with determination writ all over her face, and that spark back in her eyes.  "Bite away."

Somewhere deep within the withered, fractured remains of Augustus Parson's twisted soul, something else sparks, just briefly. It's gone almost instantly, but there is absolutely no doubt at all that it was there. It's bright and doesn't feel quite right within him.

Maybe, just maybe, it's pride.

**Author's Note:**

> I am 100% convinced that Gandy was faking being new to poker when she played in the Full Moon Saloon in order to psych her opponent out. i think Clint would agree with me


End file.
